Mumbai: With a unified voice, Mumbaikars came together to oppose the proposal to cut 9,000 mangroves for the construction of the Versova-Bhayandar coastal road at the public hearing organised by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday.

The green activists have demanded another public hearing after accusing civic officials of concluding the hearing without listening to everyone’s pleas.

As the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to extend the Coastal Road with the second phase to connect Versova with Bhayandar, the project has sparked concerns among environmentalists. The project is expected to affect 60,000 mangroves, including cutting 6,000 mangroves, which is being opposed by green activists and reported by The Free Press Journal.

On Friday, the chief engineer of BMC’s Development Plan (DP) department held a public hearing to hear citizens’ pleas about the cutting of 9,000 mangroves to make way for the Versova-Bhayandar Coastal Road. As the hearing was a crucial step towards the materialisation of the project, around 50 environmentalists participated to express their resentment against it.

While noted environmentalists like Debi Goenka raised multiple technical issues regarding the environment impact assessment report and the coastal regulation zone rules, members of the Koli community also opposed the project raising similar concerns as the ones raised in the first phase of the coastal road. They also claimed that they collect a few varieties of vegetables from the mangroves.

The meeting also saw youth participation with college students and young environmentalists attending the hearing to oppose the cutting of mangroves. The young greens specifically focused on the demand of promoting public transport instead of investing in road projects.

Yash Agrawal, a member of Fridays For Future, who was also present at the meeting, said, “No amount of roads can solve the traffic problems in any city. Especially in a city like Mumbai which is facing a submergence threat, it will cause more environmental problems including increased flooding. We should collectively focus on becoming a car-free city.”

Natash Pereira, a young environmentalist from Bandra, said, “Anything that destroys mangroves is not a feasible development option since they absorb more carbon than a tropical rainforest. They should instead add more public buses. They have money to build such expensive roads but not to increase buses. This shows that the BMC works for the rich and not for the majority of Mumbai.”

While the public hearing continued for two hours, the participants alleged that the officials did not listen to everyone and abruptly ended the hearing to save themselves from more questions. The participants requested BMC to share more data related to EIA and then hold another public hearing.